She Is 2101
by GEFM 420
Summary: Complete. Story Summary Posted. Pete has been dreaming about the future, and he doesn’t like what he sees. He comes to the realization that it's time he stepped in and saved the day... before it’s too late for Chloe and Clark.
1. Requiem For A Dream

**Title: She  
Author: GEFM  
Rating: T  
Genre: General and Romance  
Disclaimer: I own nothing and have no friends.  
A/N: The purpose of Pete is to be a mediator. You'll see old Pete sometimes in his interactions but I've matured him a lot. This isn't _'Lets go clubbing'_' Pete,though he is humorous at times. The situation is serious and personally I don't think he'd act so light all the time. Remember, Pete is going to be the VP one-day and I like showing him clean up his act a bit. He defends and speaks more eloquently than ever before. I apologize if it doesn't seem fitting but I think it serves the goal of the story.**

**Chapter 1**

"She's dying, you know." I came up behind him, slowly but not too quietly that I'd startled him.

He nods, keeping his head ashamedly low. His hands wander, absently touching the surfaces of the many items piled on his desk.

I pull up an old crate and fall upon it beside him, watching his movements intently.

"But do you _really_ know, Clark?"

His eyes are painful and roundly outraged when he snaps his head up to look at me. Still, no words form. Clark Kent has become mute.

"Why won't you come see her then?"

"What's the point, Pete?" He shouted, banging his fist on the table. Rage. "It's not like she's going to know I'm there either way." Leaning his arms on the table, I caught his back relax and his head slump again.

"Maybe not, but what about you?"

"What about me? I don't want to see her that way." He shook his head dismissively. "I don't want to remember her that way."

"How you keep her is your own choice." My voice was solemn and lost of its usual humor. "We all are faced with what we want to take with us. And when the time comes we won't take the illness, we'll take the girl."

"Come tell her goodbye, be there when she passes on. I know you'll beat yourself up no matter what, but more so if you don't go. No regrets, that's the rule we agreed on man."

Clark stilled for a moment, straightening, and then walked away to the window.

"You know it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do." He paused to clear the tightness in his throat. "Harder than seeing my dad die, than giving up Lana, than killing a man."

I knew it was, but I held that response back. He was talking again and I wasn't going to impede on that.

"I promised. Twice actually." A smirk formed on his face, as if he found some humor in the moribund. "Maybe that doesn't mean much to most people, but it does to me."

"I told her she would never end up there, that I wouldn't let it happen. I swore to protect her." Exhaling heavily, he turned his gaze upwards and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Ironic isn't it, that I was the one to put her there?"

"She asked you to Clark, it's not the same thing."

"No, she asked me to kill her. _That's_ not the same thing…its worse."

"Don't say that." Taking a few steps, I stood directly behind his defeated form. "We had more time. You gave us more time to spend with her."

"Oh come on." The guilt in his voice rang through. "She was vilified because of what we did. How was that fair for her?"

"Chloe killed that man Clark, whether she meant to or not. We had no choice."

"You had no choice. I—"

"Stop kidding yourself, alright?" I cut him off. "We both know you can't kill even when it's absolutely necessary. If you could, Lex Luthor would have been a 6 feet under bitter memory years ago." My own personal bitterness was evident in my words.

"And you love her too much." For some reason it sounded more delicate than I meant. This was always a sore spot for our relationship. My voice strained as I said the words, testing him, seeing the intensity of his despair. How deep did the wounds really run?

"Loved." The correction neither surprised nor convinced me.

"After all that happened between us, I still can't believe she had to freakin _die_ for me to see that." He swung at the wall, causing a huge rupture beside the window. It startled me for sure, but I didn't jump or back away.

He was just a scared little boy, who was losing his best friend to a disease. Again he was faced with a predicament he could not control or understand.

He was mourning. But I wouldn't let him yet, not until I brought him to see her for the last time. Not until he told her how much he missed her and how once upon a time he loved her as much as she always did. He loved her and she needed to hear that. After sitting up all those nights and hearing the girl cry on the phone over him, I knew better than anyone did; she deserved that much before she died.

"And even then I didn't say anything. You know what I said?" Deciding not to continue, he filled the silence with a sigh. "God I was such a moron." He rested his head against the barn wall beside the window, eyes closed.

I remembered what he said, because she called me the very next day and told me (at 6:30 in the morning no less). The phone conversations certainly decreased in number as the years went on as her relationship with you know who improved, but it never surprised me when she called. That morning she tried everything to bait me and I would have noticed too if I weren't fully preoccupied with my own anger at her early call. When she finally got around to working it into the conversation I could literally hear the smile in her voice, the sense of victory it held. The girl would never admit it, at least not out-loud, but she loved Clark more than ever before. At the time she had a boyfriend, a geeky photographer named Jimmy Olsen who sufficiently under-whelmed her. It didn't matter who he was, or what he was...not really. He could have been the Prince of England and it still wouldn't have made the slightest difference. Chloe was cursed the moment the freakishly tall, dark-haired farm boy was assigned to be her tour guide.

He couldn't live without her, because she meant more to him than she knew.

The night after she was admitted Clark and I pushed off our sleep just to sit up and talk. I asked him what he meant by the phrasing.

The shock of my life was realizing that Clark Kent was in love with Chloe Sullivan.

"Well there was Lana." Back in the now, I offered it as explanation.

"Yeah." He became very quiet. "There was." Regret. If only he'd told her.

But what would have changed? Would her powers not have eaten at her morality? Would she never be corrupted? Would she have had the will to become one of the good guys?

I didn't want to think about the answer or the dreadful inevitability of my friend's fate.

Something was so wrong about it. Destiny followed all of us to this very spot and hers was lost somehow.

Where were her Pulitzers, where were her accomplishments, where was the recognition for a fallen hero?

This was wrong.

He stepped into the room a few minutes after me, spending the former loitering in the hallway in front of her door, indecision freezing him.

I couldn't help feeling proud when he walked in without encouragement. He started at the foot of the bed, watching her motionless body intently. Studying its fading vitality, his mouth went dry and he wiped it with his hand out of instinct. Continuing to walk toward her, I noticed how tense he was. Clark was on full alert.

He sat on the edge of the bed next to her, pulling her almost lifeless hand into his own. His free hand brushed away the hair that fell on her now pale face. She looked dead, she felt dead.

She was cold.

And for the first time since his father's death almost five years ago, he cried a long painful cry.

I suddenly felt incredibly intrusive for having remained in the room upon his arrival.

Then something more miraculous happened. Her eyes opened.

They were expressionless and vacant just like every other time she came back online. But today was special, because she spoke.

"Oh quit worrying Clark. It's not even a scratch." She patted his knee sympathetically as we both watched with shocked expressions. "The doctors say I'll be released by tomorrow." Chloe smiled like she used to, like no time had passed and the two were still a duo fighting side by side. Like she never developed unparalleled mental power and lost control, context, and all perception.

I had so many things I wanted to say to her, I couldn't believe that I never thought it through fully. I never thought we'd ever get this chance, when she was lucid and communicative.

But Clark didn't have that problem.

"I love you." Her shocked expression made with cocked eyebrows and wide eyes held recognition, a momentary one.

The chance was fleeting.

"You love me?" She extracted her hand from his and pulled the covers up to her chest protectively. "I don't even know you."

It should have crushed Clark. It would have crushed anyone. Instead, he took it in stride.

"I guess you don't." He replied sadly.

There was truth in his words. This wasn't our Chloe. This wasn't the girl he loved or the girl I've always loved.

She looked like her, but it wasn't… _her_. There was no quick wit behind those eyes or an undying passion for the truth in her heart.

It occurred to us then that Chloe Sullivan died a long time ago, even if her physical presence was still with us.

An hour later, she went into cardiac arrest. The meteor power continuing to wear down her fragile body until there was nothing left to sustain her. Clark and I looked on helplessly as our best friend flat lined. The faint beep turning into a constant and breaking our thoughts.

Today Chloe died in the face of the two closest people in her life. An old friend and an unattainable crush: her once second family.

The sound intensified until it was all I could hear. Everything around me felt like blaring noise. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. I found myself screaming against it, confronting it. Then I saw her walking away from me and reached out to her. I grabbed at her, but she fell back until she was too far. I was alone. The sound grew louder, paralyzing me.

I was being shaken, throttled. If I could only just get away… I fought, but it was so overwhelming.

I opened my eyes to my mother standing over me, concern written all over her aged face.

Soaked in sweat, I listened incredulously as she scolded me for shouting so loud. I apologized for the entire clamor and she soon left the room.

In disbelief I sunk back into my bed, knowing what I had to do.

It was time Pete Ross went back to Smallville.


	2. Grand Reunion

**Chapter 2**

Knowing I would see her again made my concerns fade away. I was quickly assured that the real Chloe Sullivan was still as sane as she was intrepid. Which meant I could hang out with her stress-free, in person for the first time in months.

But that doesn't mean I forgot. I don't think I'll ever forget.

Clark told me about the bomb squad pact a couple weeks back and its been annoying me for a while. Apparently, so much so that my subconscious decided to scare the hell out of me, with that terrible nightmare.

I think Chloe sensed it was why I was here. Ever the reporter it wasn't like her not to scrutinize. She saw through me in a heartbeat. After all, I haven't stepped a foot in Smallville in almost three years.

Except now I was in Metropolis, Chloe's real center, trying to decipher the directions of where she was located in the building. The girl had gone on and on about _The Planet_ for years but I never appreciated its size until now. There was literally a universal studios-esque globe in the entrance hall.

Finally, I descended the steps to the basement and I saw her talking to a scrawny looking boy with close attention. From the camera that hung around his neck I was pretty sure this was the infamous Jimmy, her current boyfriend. I hadn't seen him before but I knew from Clark's slightly biased description this guy wasn't going to be on the cover of GQ anytime soon.

I knew the exact moment when she saw me. The confusion, the recognition, and the joy on her face told a story of emotions. She was more beautiful than ever. Her now dirty blonde hair was almost shoulder-length, wavy in just the right spots. Her blazer clung to her just as her dress pants did to her hips.

Chloe had been the cute, smart one back in high school and though guys came to her every now and then, she was always the friend, never the girlfriend. Time and maturity took to her and it was hard to imagine that any guy wouldn't throw himself at her. After staring a second more, she ran towards me with remarkable speed, leaping into my arms.

Her parts, pressing on my parts uncomfortably…in that really comfortable way. She held me so close; I worried that she might not let me go.

She pulled away after catching my hint about Jimmy's presence. "You were supposed to be here 20 minutes ago, what happened?" Normally she would be mad, but she was still sporting a smile that I very much returned.

I shrugged. "I got lost."

She laughed heartily. "I told you no good could come from moving into politics, Pete. Your smooth talking ability might go up but your common sense decreases just as dramatically."

"It's not that." My own smile broadened. "When I got into the lobby elevator I was stupidly expecting to go up. Imagine my surprise when—"

"Shut up." She countered playfully, smacking me on the arm.

"You first." I dared, fully aware the girl couldn't keep quiet for five minutes.

Her cling on…erm, I mean respectable boyfriend edged closer to us and I wordlessly told Chloe to introduce me. I don't know when it started but we have always been able to communicate that way. Even after all this distance it was still true. 600 miles away and we were just as close.

"Hey, come over." She waved to Jimmy and he walked to us with an awfully unsubtle determined swagger. "Peter Ross, meet… Jimmy Olsen." She watched as we shook hands.

"Pete." I amended. I absolutely hate when anyone calls me 'Peter', not unless you are my mother in which case I love it…not.

"Pete's the old friend of mine from high school I told you was visiting for the week." Chloe played middle woman, speaking to both of us in hopes we will connect so that at least one of her friends would accept him. Unfortunately, she knew early on that she was going to have to keep on searching.

"Since I have the rest of the day off I thought we could spend it catching up. Is that okay?"

'_No.'_ I could practically hear him say it.

"Yeah sure." He managed instead. "Have fun." He might as well said, _'Go die.'_ for all the positive enthusiasm it had.

When he finally left us to do some "urgent duty" I hooked my arm over her shoulders as we walked side by side up the steps.

Two friends reunited.


	3. Jubilant Ignorance

**Chapter 3**

"You didn't have to come you know." She was staring at her Styrofoam cup intently for the past five minutes. We'd been silent during that time after a full day of endless talking, jeering, and laughing. In the comfort of the dimly lit park across from her dorm, we sat. Chloe and I occupying a bench that over looked the lake atop some old bridge.

"Yeah I did. It's been too long."

Chloe turned the cup in her hands idly. "Stop pretending you're happy to be here."

"Who's pretending? We're you not there when I laughed so hard I almost choked to death?"

She shot me an annoyed look. _'That's not what I mean and you know it.'_

"You're scared I'm going to turn into some monster, aren't you?" For the record, I prefer her ignoring me. When she looks at you, I mean really looks at you, her eyes dig in and you just know that you won't be able to hide a thing from her. It's a pretty frightening experience all its own.

"No, of course not." My eyes fell to the stone floor to avoid her gaze.

"Might want to work on that lying ability, Mr. President."

"Yes." I admitted in a quiet voice, because I could still feel her watching me.

"Well, you don't have to worry." Yeah, because thinking about your imminent death doesn't make me worry at all. Nope. "Did Clark tell you about the pact?"

"The weight loss one or the really morbid one?" Diversion is such a fun tactic.

"Door number two." I nodded in response.

"And what do you think?"

"I think it's a terrible idea. I'm saying no and I think Clark should have to."

"Why's that?" Her eyebrows quirked inquisitively. She officially entered reporter mode.

"Be serious. You know the guy better than even me. Do you honestly think he's going to be able to do that to anyone, much less you?"

"Me?" She questioned the discrepancy.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Ignorance. I was so sure you out grew this."

Her bewildered expression only increased. I rose from my seat and stood before her, to speak directly to her.

"I want you to listen to me and actually listen." I waited for her to agree. "Clark is a really selfless guy, but when it comes to dying, the kind you can't actually come back from, I think he's more conservative than we think."

Predictably, Chloe dismissed my implication.

"You don't think he would die for you or his mother? And what about Lana? He turned back _time_ to save her."

"As far as I know they're both still very much alive. Unless that's changed recently."

"Don't you remember what caused that? Clark died and was brought back by his father. He begged to not be revived."

"That's because he didn't want to be responsible for the person's death. But if you recall correctly, the entire town would have been destroyed by that MIT psychopath had he not decided to come back."

"Clark is a hero, not a selective hero. He'd turn the world upside down for any of us." Her arms folded over her chest.

"Look, if either me or Lana were in that sort of situation he would do anything, I'm not saying he wouldn't. But give up his life in exchange for ours? He wouldn't. Clark values everyone's life, but sometimes he's about the greater good."

"Why me then?" Her disbelief showing through her words.

"The greater good." I shrugged. "He believes that you are more valuable to this earth than he is alone. Not to say he thinks you'll be out there on the front lines beating away bad guys with your newspapers …Clark believes that on your own you'd make a difference."

"What, he wouldn't? That doesn't make any sense. When have I ever made a difference? I'm not the one helping people. I'm not the one who was sent to earth to be its savior." I sat by her side again and placed my hand on hers.

"But you have helped people and have saved the world. You've arguably done more than he has."

"No, that doesn't fit." She pulled her hand away from mine. I can't say that didn't hurt. "That's still not right."

I almost shouted back. "Why? Because you can't accept the truth?"

"I only found out his secret, what…two years ago? Clark's been pulling people out of the fire long before we ever became a team."

"Yeah, but even then who was feeding him the information? Clark's got reporter chops, but like yours? No way."

"He's been able to stand on his own loads of times. Plus, he could always find a new Pulitzer wannabe who—."

"—who he would have to befriend for years and years before he could trust them with his secret. Clark's not in the secret telling business. Ask Lana."

"But…" I shook my head at her. She really could be painfully stubborn sometimes.

"You're missing the point. He needs you, the way you need… I don't know, air or water. For him, your death is so unfathomable he can't even process it. His life is so dependent on your existence because of what you stand for to him."

I turned my attention to the lake, watching the smooth ripples in its surface.

"Clark would die for you without a moment's hesitation, even if it doesn't make any sense to you or me. He could move on from Lana's, my, or anyone else's death really. You would be there to heal him and in time he would be himself again. There's still hope of getting back his life when you're there."

"How do you know all this?" Her voice grew soft, becoming less unsure of me.

"Because Clark came to see me a few months ago." She looked as shocked as ever. "I know, it surprised me too. Basically, everything I'm telling you is straight from his mouth."

"Do you remember what he said to you after his phantom mind control experience?"

"Yeah…that I meant a lot to him." Now she was no longer defiant. I could hear her caution.

"He elaborated on that more. I'm sure he didn't mention this to you, but you died in his dream. Shot right in front of him too. He gave up fighting the reality after that. Even the phantom knew that to break through Clark, you had to be removed."

"Why didn't either of you tell me?"

"He didn't want you to worry about him and he made me promise not to tell you." She looked away from me, taking all of this in. Her skepticism still persisted.

"But he did fight. He did. He wouldn't be here if he didn't."

"He only came back because he realized it wasn't real and you were still alive. Otherwise, he was willing to stay there with Lana and trap himself in his own subconscious."

She stared at me for one long moment, unsure. Then suddenly her eyes shined with jubilance, she accepted it.

"So I do mean a lot to him?" Two steps forward, ten back. Her smile came back, though it was restrained just in case I didn't answer in the affirmative.

I smiled my goofiest, toothy smiles. "You mean the world to him."

Here I was laying the groundwork. The first pieces to an elaborate puzzle I concocted that night when I decided to return. I wasn't here to stop the dream from coming true or to somehow fix Chloe. I know who I am and what I'm capable of doing. I'm just a mortal named Pete Ross and I'm not going to be able to turn the world on its axis anytime soon. I can not control destiny.

But I can do my part to influence it.

I was here on a mission.

I was here to save Clark Kent.


	4. The Need For Pacts

**Chapter 4**

"One day I'm going to climb these steps and you won't be moping around." I laughed as his eyes went wide.

"Hey!" He stood from his place at the couch and bounded over to me, grappling me in a brotherly bear hug.

"Easy man, I just got this jacket. I don't want you to get excited and rip off one of the arms or something."

He was smiling like a complete dork and I loved it. I missed him. I didn't realize how much until now.

"What're you doing here?"

"Enjoying Spring break. Chloe's not the only one going to school."

"Right, I forgot." He swallowed, hiding the regret of being _the only one_ not to be in college. "How's your mom?"

"Same. Except she started dating again. Some guy named Mark. I think he'll be my new daddy." I joked and it won me a laugh from him. Clark too had lost his father this past year and he heavily suspected that his mother might be beginning to have reciprocal feelings for Lionel Luthor.

We caught up a bit as he walked me back to the farmhouse. Clark offered me a cold glass of lemonade, which I gladly took.

Pouring it to the top, he pushed it over to me where I sat on the kitchen-island. "Not that Smallville isn't the most happening spot, but why aren't you lady chasing at the beach with the rest of the frat boys?"

I took a swig of the drink, savoring the taste of Mrs. Kent's lemonade. "It didn't seem right, especially now."

"Oh." He managed, putting the pitcher back into the refrigerator. "Have you seen her yet?"

"Yesterday." He closed the door and turned back to me.

"And how is she?"

"Hanging in there. She hasn't used it once, not since last month anyway."

He shook his head. "She shouldn't do that. The longer she denies it the harder it will be to control in the future."

"Why don't you go tell her that?" He opened his mouth to respond, but no words come out. "Because you're avoiding her like the plague, right?"

He didn't have the audacity to lie to me directly. "Do you have any idea how much that hurts her, Clark?" I waited for his answer but only heard silence. "She's trying to survive the hardest thing she's ever had to go through, and you're letting her face it alone."

"Chloe is not alone." His voice carried louder.

I laughed. "You think Jimmy's helping her? She hasn't even told him yet." Clark seemed unwilling to confront me all of a sudden, walking away to the living room.

"Why haven't you at least called her? Really, why haven't you?"

"I don't know." He spoke to no one, facing the couches. "Every time I see her or hear her voice I get so… I keep thinking _'this is the moment she's going to lose it'_ and it sickens me. Maybe I'm being selfish—"

"You are."

"—But I can't. What if she becomes like her mom with the sporadic comas or worse… What if she starts abusing the power? You know what she's capable of. Even if she wanted to she won't go down easily."

"Do you really have that little faith in her? She's been able to handle it so far." He quickly replaced his empathy with anger, hardening his emotion as he approached me determinedly.

"This isn't about faith, this is about statistical fact. Meteor freaks can't live normally." He was far more jaded than I'd expected. "And she's not handling it, she's ignoring it. One day it'll blow up in all our faces and I guess I just don't want to be around for that."

Then I understood. Clark wanted to detach himself, to become less dependent on her so that if she died he would be able to keep going.

He was so naïve. When Chloe dies he won't be able to walk on like nothing happened, if its today, next month, or 20 years from now.

"You really think you can just forget about her. That you'll go to training and that'll be that. What happens to her is of no consequence to you." I could've laughed if there were anything humorous left in this situation. "There's a reason you didn't go to the Fortress more than because Lex would have killed all those people."

"That's insane."

"Why didn't you go after then? Why are postponing it for 6 months?"

"Who's going to stop her when she finally embraces it? I can't leave knowing what a threat she is."

"How can you talk that way about her, man?" I stood from my seat and shouted unabashedly, "She's not just another freak for you to defeat and toss aside!"

"She seems to think so. That deal she came up with made that pretty clear." I felt like punching him in the face and I would have too if I could've without breaking my hand.

"You need to open you eyes Clark. I know it's hard for you to believe but Chloe is more terrified than either of us are. If you knew a thing about her you'd recognize that she wasn't thinking straight that night."

"You literally almost died in front of her and her abilities manifested to save you. It was a trying experience for her to have that sort of power. She panicked and pushed you into a plan you will never follow through."

"Oh, I won't?"

"How are you going to kill her, Clark? After you figure out a way to bypass her telepathy, telekinesis, and mind control are you going to just strangle her to death with your bare hands? Are you going to hold her down until she draws her last breath?" I saw his eyes glaze over. "Come on, since when can you kill anyone?"

"You're forgetting that I have no choice."

"And you're forgetting who we're talking about. This is Chloe. _Chloe_ is not going to let her life go if she can help it. She's going to fight whether or not you choose to support her."

"But she won't be able to do it unless she knows you believe she can. She thinks you don't trust her to beat this."

"What else am I supposed to do, huh Pete? Put on a happy face for her and pretend there's not this huge possibility that she might go insane tomorrow?"

"No, Chloe's not an idiot. She knows how much the odds are stacked against her and she doesn't need you to lie to her about her chances. She just needs you to stand by her."

There was a long pause on his end, during which he appeared thoughtful. He walked past me and grabbed his blue coat from the rack.

He shot me a look before he stepped through the open door. "I just need her."


	5. Coach Super Flannel

**Chapter 5**

As we were walking from my car to_ The Planet,_ I got an idea in my head that I had to ask him about. The parking lot was totally abandoned because it was already pretty late at night and the streetlights shone with yellow light.

"Clark, why haven't you ever gone power crazy?"

We were walking side by side but he was ahead of me a bit, longer legs and all that. "I have actually."

"I'm talking about when you didn't have a little red rock tucked away in your shirt."

"Oh…I don't know." His stride slowing to meet mine. He looked from the ground to me. "I guess because of my parents. The way they raised me, I mean. If I ever showed off my abilities, people would notice and I could be identified. They taught me to draw a line of how far I could go so I would always know not to cross it and do something I might regret."

"And whenever you got a new power, how'd you deal with that?"

"You were there when I developed super hearing, remember?" I did. "I usually freaked out, realized again that I was an alien, and then I came to terms with it. Then I had to harness the ability itself and learn to control it."

He looked at me oddly. "Why are you smiling?" I didn't even realize I was.

"I love being the power behind the man."

He laughed. "What?"

I reached up and patted his back. "Training starts now, coach."

---------

"You do both realize that you are crazy." She grabbed a file from her desk and walked past both of us to the filing cabinet, shuffling through its contents.

Inside _The Planet_ basement, where Clark and I had come to see Chloe, we had just finished explaining the project to her. After she recovered from the mere shock of seeing Clark again and Clark and I together she finally listened to us. It was pretty clear that she was more than a little adverse to it.

"It's not such a crazy idea. Think about it, Chlo. It could work." Clark was not necessarily an advocate of the plan, but its not like we had so many options.

"Really, who's better to teach you how to control them than super-flannel king over here?" Clark scowled at me.

"I don't want to control them!" Her shouting took me aback. Lucky that no one else was around. "Sorry." She closed the cabinet slowly. "I just really want to put it behind me."

"But you can't. Its apart of who you are now." Clark approached her but she backed away. He tried again and she ran out of the office.

He looked at me confused for a moment and then we both followed after. Using his super-speed, he blocked her from the stairway as I came up from behind.

"I know it's hard, believe me. But if you keep going like this, like nothing changed you're going to make things worse for yourself. If we take it a little at a time you can gain full reign on all your abilities. Then one day you can live with them all the time without any surprises." Her eyes caught his and I could sense her warming to the prospect.

"Maybe you can even live normally. Although from what I've heard, its pretty over rated." He smiled and she laughed back, placing an appreciative hand on his shoulder.

It's hard to believe she went back to Jimmy after everything, after Clark's confession and the kiss that both of them refuse to tell me about. It didn't surprise me though, because Jimmy was her past and her only stability. Clark was a future she greatly feared, where she could fall for him and him for her. Where she could break him with her own fall that neither of them had any say over. She was willing to go it alone for him. That's just who she was.

For once, she was wrong. She did need to give them a shot. If they try, Clark might be able to keep going on. If they try, there might be a different outcome.

It was time to answer the question. Would Clark's love change anything?

-------------------

**TBC...STAY TUNED**


	6. Past Midnight Rendezvous

**Chapter 6**

Kent Farm. After a couple more days of convincing, Clark and I finally got her to come back with us to Smallville. We figured that here–where there was exponentially more privacy–we could start our own version of training.

It was almost 2 in the morning when I heard the murmurs of voices carrying to my room. Afraid that a robber had broken in or worse–Luthorcorp lackeys after Chloe, I stealthily left my room heading for the living room below where I knew Clark was sleeping. If I could warn him in time he might be able to–

When I reached the top of the steps I was relieved to hear it was only Clark and Chloe, whispering to one another. I smiled to myself, realizing how silly I was to jump to so many conclusions and turned to leave.

"I'm so scared Clark, you have no idea." Her muffled tone caught my attention, and I paused on the steps. "I pretend like I'm not. But everyday…I'm terrified of what might happen to me." Then I was sure. She was crying.

My concern overran my respect for their privacy and I settled on one of the lower steps. If I craned my neck I could see them, cuddled together before the radiating fire. Her face was in his chest, which accounted for the distortion I heard earlier. He was rubbing circles in her back, taking time to feel her and to decide upon a suitable response.

"What might happen to someone else? What if I hurt Lana or Pete?" I could barely hear her voice. "What if I kill them?"

Clark stilled for a moment, as I watched the fear reflect in him.

The last time they had this conversation, Chloe had been desensitized to her circumstance. They were surrounded by a marveling heap of rubble and edifice in some old foundry, where Bizarro Clark (a phantom clone) had left them both to die. There had been meteor rocks everywhere and Chloe was pretty knocked out cold herself. Bizarro Clark, who did not feel the ill effects of the kryptonite, was able to pick up a massive column and lift it above Clark ready to throw it atop him. Clark, writhing in pain, barely managed to stay awake and recount the situation later on. When the stone column was tossed, a large part of it collided with the ceiling breaking it in several pieces. Even if he were able to dodge one piece the others would still land on him, which in his weakened state would mean death. He saw them falling and turned away, in a fruitless effort to miss at least one. Instead of a loud crash, he heard complete silence and he slowly cocked his head to see someone before him with hands outstretched upwards. The sight amazed him; the chunks of stone merely spun in place, as a field interrupted its movement. And it was Chloe, standing with ease holding against almost a ton of weight.

She pushed it away and all of it fell to the ground shattering into even smaller parts. She stared at her hands for a moment and then at Clark, in utter amazement. Bizarro Clark chuckled and super-sped over to her, ready to toss her aside and kill her without regard. She just looked at him and rose her hand.

"Stop." She had quietly ordered. And he complied, standing before her frozen. Realizing what she done, she spoke again, telling him to go and not return. After he left, she helped Clark up, and pulled him as far away from the rocks as possible.

Falling to her knees with exhaustion, she sat blankly, both frightened and in awe of her own power. She turned to Clark who had been eyeing her suspiciously for the past few minutes. "Promise me that if I ever get out of hand that you won't hesitate to kill me before I hurt someone else."

Even though he had to leave to prevent Bizarro from causing any further damage, he stayed to talk with her for a few more moments until he fully recuperated. What she was saying deeply bothered him.

"When it happens I don't want you to think of me as Chloe Sullivan. I want you to see me the way you see the rest of them. Just another freak. Okay?" She stretched her hand out to him.

He had resisted but soon he agreed and shook her hand, though it angered him.

Here she was expressing the same fear, but in different words, with more empathy for herself. Time had passed since that day and she had now come to see that actually being selfless was harder than it was to say. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to lose everything she had ever worked for.

He brushed the tears away from her face. "You won't." His voice startled me, because it wasn't rough as I had expected. It was determined. "I'm here to look after you. I know this whole thing sounds silly to you, but I'm starting to think it might work. You should too." He reached up and stroked her hair.

"All those other people, they had vendettas and so much hate in them. But you, you're not that way. If we can get a hold of what's going on inside you, we can tame it. It's not like your gifts always have to be on. There's a dial on them and you can learn when to turn them way up just as you'll learn when to tone it down."

He held her closer. "Look at me, for example. If I squeezed even a tiny bit harder I could break a few bones. That sort of power gets to you every once in a while. You just need to know the time and place to let them lose."

"My gifts are manipulative. I mean, I could get _anyone_ to do whatever I want. And if someone gets in my way I could just mind whip them out the window." Instead of sounding reverent she was guilty of a crime she imagine she might commit.

"Hey, I can do some stuff too." His voice was whiny and caught Chloe and I off guard.

She pulled away from him and laughed mockingly. "Clark, are you jealous?" His eyes fell. "I was joking. I can't believe—! Why?" Her eyebrows drew together in thought.

"Who knows? I'm only now getting over the Green Arrow back lash." He smiled. "And he was only pretty good at archery."

She shook her head disapprovingly at him and leaned back into the couch, his arm draped on her shoulders. They fell silent, content with themselves for a moment.

"Lets just say you get control over them—"

"Clark, are you counting your chickens?" She shot him an accusatory look.

He ignored her, continuing on. "Do you think you're going to use them?"

"What and join the spandex fetish gang with you? I think my place is behind a newspaper desk, thank you very much." She turned her focus back to the fire, which had started to crackle a bit.

"You can always do both. It would be a shame not to use all that for something good."

"Maybe. But then, who is going to cover your butt?"

"Me?" He feigned insult.

"Yeah you. God knows that all those journalism courses under your belt aren't for nothing. One day you'll be pulling in the hours at _The Planet_ too and then who else is going to come up with plausible excuses for you? You, Mr. uh-um I was in the bathroom?" I almost laughed, but was able to catch myself. "Who knows? I'm not saying that I'd never take off my heels for some on the side hero work. If there's a really big fight, I might have to step in and save your butt again."

"So many references to my posterior. Are trying to tell me something, Ms. Sullivan?"

She smiled broadly, lightening her eyes. "Not unless it's that you _are_ an ass."

"Oh I am, am I?" He moved over her predatorily.

"Yes, you are." She said already giggling, due to him tickling her.

"Say that—" his voice trailed off as he whispered into her ear.

"No!" She was moving spastically, desperately trying to get away from him.

"Maybe you didn't hear me. Say, Clark has—" He bent to her again.

She began to squirm more, almost falling off the couch. "Clark is a HUGE ass."

His tongue clicked against his teeth making a 'Tisk, Tisk' noise. "That's not what I asked you to say at all."

She was at tears, pushing at his shoulders to get him off her. "ER… Fine! CLARK KENT HAS A SEXY ASS!" I could have died right there, it took me by such surprise. Neither of them heard me either. Maybe I should join the CIA because apparently I'm really good at this spying thing.

He released her then and started laughing, though he didn't move from his place atop her. She called him a jerk, but didn't mean it. Because only moments before she was crying for a totally different reason and he was able to bring her out of her funk. More than anything she loved him for his personality, it was infectious to her.

They both got really silent again, which bewildered me because of how loud they'd just been. I peered past the wall again, witnessing them kiss softly and then more. Delving into each other as the fire light danced on their bodies.

This was why I came back, to make this happen. I stood to return upstairs, recognizing that I no longer had any reason to stick around.

When came to the landing it creaked. Subsequently came Clark's voice. "Pete?"

I choose not respond and walk on to his room. There I lay up in bed, unable to fall asleep. Which was silly. This was what I wanted. This was what they needed.

Still I was burning inside, cut as deep as if we were back in freshman year and I was watching then dance happily together again. I went to the Spring Formal with one of the hottest girls in our year, Erica Fox, but it paled in comparison to my experience at homecoming that same year, when the only guy Chloe was smiling at was me.

There was a part of me that wasn't willing to shed any tears for what Clark did that day, leaving her and all. Then tossing her aside like she was nothing and what they had meant nothing. Because when she fell I'd be there to help her up, that was a job I enjoyed and had for years. In turn, we forged an unbreakable bond with it.

Its horrible of me and just as selfish but it wasn't like Clark had eyes for anyone but Lana back then anyway, and it was bound to happen sooner or later.

The fact that she never learned her lesson and turned away had aggravated me. It still did. Sure I wasn't like my brothers, winning football trophies left and right, and I wasn't zipping around saving people but I could be loyal, I could never hurt her. I could never stop loving her.

It was the reason Clark and I had never gotten closer after that. Even after I learned his secret, we could do nothing but drift apart. I just hated him, as nonsensical as it sounds. Chloe was…is this perfect girl and he couldn't see past the end of his nose.

But I would never wish she hadn't come to Smallville. Yeah, maybe Clark wasn't as tight with me as I would like, but it was worth it. She alone had given me more support and happiness than anyone I knew had.

Now that he did, that he saw her, I didn't know how to take it. If we fixed it, if we saved her, would they stay together? Would they one day be married? Have children?

Where would that put me now that I wasn't the bridge but the extra wheel?

I turned over onto my front, face placed in the pillow.

I had to get over myself. This was so much bigger than my own feelings. If she dies, I could never forgive myself for messing up the process. She has to live. She does.

I just have to accept that now when she falls…

He'll be the only one who can catch her.

* * *

**TBC...**


	7. Mastering Veiled Banter

**Chapter 7**

I called practice for the day after that incident because the two of them were acting odd all day. Sure we lost a training day, which was practically unaffordable considering I had to go back to Wichita soon, but I couldn't stand for all the weirdness going on. Life is only as awkward as you make it, I always say, and right now they were both making it really, really awkward.

From what I took of yesterday's deafening silence they hadn't gone any farther than that one kiss, as serious as it had looked. I know Chloe, she must have pulled away the second she had the chance and called interference, blaming the whole damn thing on stress.

Clearly, they weren't going to need a small shove to get back to each other. I was going to have to throw them off of a cliff. And with two super-powered super-stubborn friends it was worth the risk. If they hit the ground hard enough, they might even get the message through their thick skulls.

Now Chloe and I were standing in the Kent field awaiting instruction. Clark walked up to us clipboard in hand, dressed for some reason in his usual outfit; gap flannel and jeans.

Glistening with sweat, she stood with hands on her hips, eyeing him suspiciously. "What the hell are you wearing?" Her voice was brazenly annoyed and I knew immediately that today would be a long, long day.

"What? This?" He pinched the middle of his shirt and tugged at it.

She turned to me. "Pete, why are we both in gym sweats when he can wear that?" I stood silent, deathly afraid of involving myself.

"I never said there was a dress code." He gestured to her clothing, which included tight pants, running shoes and a Met U sweatshirt.

She looked taken aback for a second and looked to me. Then sighed in defeat. "I guess when I thought 'training' I figured it would include running and pull ups. Or muscular sweaty men in gyms."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You _would_ think that."

She stepped toward him threateningly, her ponytail wagging behind her. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Children, Children." I moved between them. "We're trying to act older than 13 today. No cold shoulder, no bickering."

"He's a child." She accused.

"And she's a—"

I cut him off before he said anything I knew he'd regret. "You finish that sentence and I'll have to punch your teeth out with chunk of kryptonite." She smiled smugly after that, as if she somehow won an unspoken battle.

"Alright. Now that that is finally over, what're we starting with?" I rubbed my hands together excitedly, ready for the plan of action.

"I thought—I thought you were doing that." He stammered with embarrassment.

She slapped herself in the head. "Of course. Pete, why do you trust him with these things? He obviously has two brain cells working up there."

He leered at her, as realization hit him. "Oh no! _Now_ I remember." He feigned animation as he flipped through his obviously blank clipboard. He pointed to a page arbitrarily. "There we are. Chloe, go run 4 miles and come back." He flipped it shut and grinned at her.

"What?" She looked speechless at him first, then to me. "No way!"

"Why not? You're dressed for it anyway. It seems fitting."

"I thought we were trying to get my mind bullets to shoot straight, not exhaust me for no reason.

"Ah… but the mind is what the body is."

"That's insane! Pete, tell him its insane." My eyes fell to the ground helplessly. When they fought they really went at it and you didn't want to be a mile near them. Unfortunately, I was here trying to save their lives and I had to be in ground zero for the time being. Damn me for caring. Damn me to hell.

"You can't argue with the clip board." He held it closely to his chest.

Then out of no where, she lunged at him, passing me and heading right to him. He grabbed her in mid flight and set her down as she struggled against him kicking and writhing. "I hate you. You freaking jerk." She broke free and moved away from him.

Okay, this was far more serious than I thought. They must have had another _Talk_ after I left that night. Maybe Chloe stopped it, but he obviously said something to make her act this way. Sometimes when it came to talking to girls, Clark wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed…or in the yard for that matter.

"Alright." I said, my voice carrying louder than I'd intended. "Look, Chloe and I will go run a mile and circle back." The two of them seriously needed to be away from each other for a while. "C'mon." I tugged on her sleeve and began to jog. She hesitated and then followed me out of the field, leaving Clark to stand alone.

Chloe had defiantly refused to turn back, but I did once right before we past the "Kent Farm" sign, seeing Clark crumpled on the ground, hands on his face.

They weren't angry because of anything real. They were reacting just like anyone would when they were about to lose someone they cared about. They cared about each other so much they couldn't bare to be without…and yet recognized that they might have to some day. Recognizing that its easier to have never had it and lost it then to feel it, really hold it in their hands and then have snatched away so unceremoniously.

"So are you going to tell me what he said to you?" I asked after we just made our turn from the main road, back toward the farm.

"Are we really that transparent?"

"As glass. But that's because I know you both so well." She didn't catch my eyes for an instant as she tried to push it away.

"I guess it really shouldn't have bothered me. I don't know why it does." All her preamble didn't faze me. This was her lead in to make her reaction seem petty and false.

"He says pretty bad things sometimes, it's no surprise that you two are so upset."

"No, its just me." She added, puzzled as to why I had said that.

"Oh really? Is that why I saw him crying in the fields earlier?" She stopped running, and though I'm a fit guy I was glad to rest.

"Okay, I'm really confused now." She resumed, except she progressed slower, walking barely. "Two days ago, we sort of…Well I guess it doesn't matter. But yesterday he cornered me, telling me his feelings for Lana weren't completely resolved and he wasn't ready for anything else. I was so caught off guard. I just told him that I wasn't offering anything. You know, to cover myself." I listened to her story closely and then suddenly started to laugh, and loudly too.

"Why are you laughing?" She asked, hurt. "It's not funny."

"Actually it is. You really believed him? That's sort of funny."

"Its true. He's always loved Lana, as sporadic as it may seem."

"Why did whatever happen two days ago, end?" Knowing fully what it was and what had happened between them.

"We uh— kissed. Afterwards I told him I had Jimmy and we needed to stop."

"You don't think it's even a little suspicious that the very next day he tells you he loves Lana and is not over her?"

"Why? Its not like it's the first time that's ever happened. One moment I think we're a millimeter away from being a couple the next he's chasing the Lana ghost."

"Which makes it a great defense in coming situations of rejection. He wants to reject you too so he doesn't feel so dumped on." She stared at me thoughtfully and began running again, back the final stretch of land to where Clark was. I pulled up the rear and caught up quickly, moving in time beside her.

Her eyes studied me. "How'd you get so wise, Pete?"

I let my grin grow wide, showing off my set of whites. "I stayed the hell away from Smallville."


	8. The Boss Trigger

**Chapter 8**

Soon it became clear that Clark was not going to be the best coach on his own, though he did have the Kent platitudes for this and that. No, this operation was going to be run by "The Boss" from now on. It fit and gave me a more useful job than being "the matchmaker", which by the way I had so far failed miserably.

With the knowledge that Clark wasn't in love with Lana and that they were both using deflective measures on one another, Chloe was subdued and willingly submitting herself to our routines.

I had a few activities planned for today but Chloe really need to first pinpoint the trigger on her powers. Yesterday's work out had been a fiasco because of it.

Now we were in the kitchen, Clark was making us all breakfast and Chloe was in the dining room staring intently at a glass of water. I waved a hand in front of her unflinching face. "Earth to Chloe."

"I resent that." Clark called from the kitchen. I eyed him oddly, but kept my attention on Chloe.

Chloe was again lucid, without removing her gaze on the glass. "I don't get it. I'm not doing or thinking anything differently than last time."

"Maybe its circumstantial." I offered as I pulled up a seat next to her, flipped it around and sat with my hands on the back.

Clark answered again. "I don't think these gifts work that way." We heard the clanging of plates. "Foods ready."

I got up to wash my hands and replaced the chair. When Chloe didn't follow I grabbed the glass off the table. "Hey! It was moving."

Clark walked over to us and set the plates down. "Nah, that was just Goliath walking over here shaking the house with his big boots." I slapped him on the shoulder, which of course stung a little and went over to the sink with Chloe.

When we returned Clark sat at the head of the table and Chloe and I across from each other. It was weird to think of him as the man of the household now, especially because Jonathan wasn't the sort of father you could forget as a friend. No, he exuded so much strength it made Clark who he was today. I could only hope that Clark had retained enough, so that he could teach Chloe, who was in desperate need of guidance.

"Why again can't it be circumstantial?" I prodded as I placed a nearby napkin over my lap.

"They could start out that way but after a while it's involuntary. We're trying to make it instinctual." Clark stuck a fork in his sausage and devoured it.

I then spoke to Chloe. "Well you said you weren't thinking differently. Does that mean you remember what you were thinking then?"

"That's the problem. I wasn't thinking anything." Chloe had hardly touched a thing on her plate. Which was normal for her. She hated eating and talking. Since she never stopped the latter, she was rarely eating in silence.

"It happened pretty fast, maybe you don't remember." Clark suggested, taking another bite off his plate.

"No, I do. I saw the Evil you throw the beam and you lying there about to be crushed." She pushed at her egg with her fork. "I didn't have time to think."

It was crazy what she did, really. Had she not had any powers–-if the whole thing was a hoax or if they still didn't activate— they both would have died. I felt a nasty knife twist in my side.

"I still think we should think of it circumstantially." Insisting seems to be the only way to get idea through to them. "If they start out that way, they must have the key to using it regularly."

Somehow, given the amount of food present on Clark's dish only a few moments before, he had cleaned off the entire thing. "We are trying to get it before it gets to the next stage. Makes sense to me."

"I have to be really horror movie scared for that to work. Or at least crazy stressed out."

I let my fork fall to my plate. "We can always induce stress." They both shot me almost identical inquisitive expressions. Reporters… the lot of them.

-------

After breakfast we relocated to his barn out back.

"Ready?" Clark yelled from the top of the loft, holding a bale of hay.

"No." Came Chloe's disheartened answer from the floor of the barn below, directly across from him. I walked up behind her and placed a gentle hand on her back, rubbing her shoulders encouragingly.

"She's ready." I dropped my voice. "You're ready."

I stepped back and left her standing there to face the challenge. I had devised this construction to test Chloe's reaction trigger. What was it that made her mental power come to life? Clark stood about to throw the bale down onto her, from there we would see what happened.

She spread her legs into a stance, holding her arms up. From where I was off to the side I saw her shaking.

"1…2…3!" He chucked it and it came over us. Almost in slow motion, it reached its apex and traveled downward.

Down and down…Chloe straightened at attention. Seconds before impact she turned away, blocking herself from it.

Except nothing happened. Clark held the hay in his grasp.

Her eyes were wide as she let out a breath. "Thanks."

"I'm only returning the favor." He gave her one of those grins that always made her melt.

I gave them a moment in their "special place" where no one was in the room except the two of them.

After it became more than a little annoying to wait, I cleared my throat and they came back down from their cloud. "Did anything run through your mind Chloe?"

"Besides '_Holy crap I'm going to die'_? No." Clark was making his way up the stairs to restart.

"Why don't you think in commands? Tell yourself to stop it." I moved away again.

The next several trials weren't really any different barred from the fact that she was now screaming "Stop!" at the hay bale.

Sixth attempt we were willing to call it quits by eight. It was tiring for the mortals down here, even if Clark could keep going for the rest of the day…or the year.

This time Clark threw it for the hell of it, it looked, because neither of us were paying any attention at the time. Then I was terrified. Instead of heading for Super-Chloe it was about to slam into me. I'm so going to punch Clark in the face later. I don't care what happens to my hand.

Clark edged to the banister to watch. Chloe followed it with her eyes too and then like nothing, she moved for me.

"Pete, Watch Out!" I fell over trying to get away.

Her hands came up and though she was still a distance away it froze before it hit me.

She held it with visible ease, as if some invisible thread connected her hands to it. "Clark! What the hell are you doing? What if that didn't work?" She trembled a bit, struggling to hold it.

"I would have gotten there in time. I knew I threw it at Pete." He leaned against the banister watching her movements.

"Way to tell me, Clark." Picked myself off the ground and dusted myself off. "Chloe, why don't you try giving it back to Clark."

She shook some more as she pivoted from facing me to facing Clark. "MmmmKay." It rose a little traveling sort of uneasily, wavering this way and that. Then all of sudden it slammed into the ceiling and fell back down.

"Sorry I-I couldn't hold it." Then Chloe almost collapsed and I went for her, but Clark got there first. Holding her from behind with both her hands bracing on his arms.

He lifted her up to her feet and scanned her. "You alright?"

"Yeah, sort of tired though. Can we take a break?" Her eyelids were half closed and we both recognized how draining it was for her.

I settled next to them, feeling again that I was unwanted.

Clark's mouth quirked upwards. "What'd ya say Boss? Can we give it a rest?" Nodding, I helped Clark hold her up and led her out of the barn.

We all walked together back to the house, and I felt a pang of nostalgia hit me. It was hard to think it had been so long since we were together like this because we meshed so well, like nothing had changed.

I couldn't imagine her not being between us, teasing us and pushing us to become better than we thought we could be.

Maybe my love for her would never be returned. Actually, it was fairly likely. But maybe someday she'll look back on this time and remember me. Remember what I did for her and what I sacrificed for her.

The best friend she ever had.

Maybe thats all I really needed.


	9. Secret Weapon: Integrity

Chapter 9  
"So that was useless." She came in from the kitchen holding her requisite coffee in hand, resting beside me on the couch. Chloe had woken a few minutes ago after practically falling unconscious earlier. I was worried but I knew she'd come back to us sooner rather than later. The girl certainly wasn't a quitter.

"No, it wasn't. We trigged your power." She leaned against my shoulder and took a sip of her drink. "That's the first step."

"We have so much farther to go." Though she was sitting close to me it was tangible how different it was between she and Clark. With us, the energy was always platonic and with them it was everything but.

"We have the time." Assuring her was an important undertaking. If she lost faith, she would spiral down and we wouldn't have a fighting chance of handling this.

"Pete?" Her eyes kept straight ahead.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really think this is such a good idea?" She pulled away to get a good look at my face. So she could read me. "If I control them I might be inclined to…abuse them."

"That's why we're not going to throw you out on the street once you figure them out." I placed a hand on her knee. "We'll set moral boundaries for you, together."

She stood half-excitedly half-anxiously, pacing the living room. "I can walk into _The Daily Planet_ tomorrow and convince everyone I'm the new editor." She snapped her fingers. "And like that. I have everything I've ever wanted."

I nodded, accepting it as a possibility. "If you saw a huge story lying on some guy's desk, one that could make your career if you past it off as yours, would you do it? If you wouldn't be caught?"

Chloe cocked her head to the side, reminding me of a little dog. "No." She folded her arms over her chest. "It would be really tempting, but I don't think I would."

"_That's_ why you won't abuse your power. You have too much integrity."

"When you have that sort of strength over normal humans, integrity sort of doesn't apply to you as much." The fact that she spoke detached of _normal humans_ caught my attention, but I knew she was trying to act tough. She doesn't really think that way.

"Sure it does. Morality isn't variable. We just dilute ourselves into thinking it is." I thought of Clark, who was in many ways a god among men, alien and sent to 'rule us with strength'. Yet he forsaked all of that, placing all his energy into helping his friends and saving random strangers he came across.

"All of the meteor freaks of the past, most of then anyway, started out as good people. Their power sort of slammed into them like a freight train one day and being so ill-advised they left their sense of right and wrong in the past."

"We're just going to have to focus on reinforcing that as time goes on. As long as you can separate good and evil up here—" I gestured to my head. "And in here—" Then to my heart. "You'll be fine."

Appearing she was satisfied for the time being, she held out her hand to me. "C'mon. I'll go get Clark from the shower and we can continue with our work."

We still had no idea what we could do to push her abilities to appear on command, but it didn't matter.

We were taking it a little at a time, like Clark had said. I was cool with that because it gave us more time to hang out together. I told her we had enough time to deal with everything but really I had no idea. For all we know this could take months or it could all come crashing on us tomorrow.

That made us all try a little harder, in case out of no where we're slammed with reality.

But for now, we would work together on the biggest project of our lives.

Today, we would begin raising a hero.

* * *

TBC... 


	10. Friend Necessity Clause

**Chapter 10 **

_**PT. 1**_

Clark and I had been stuck in a deadlock, arguing back and forth for the past 20 minutes. We were all outside watching as the sun made its dissent. Chloe was sitting on a nearby fence, remaining neutral in the fight raging between the two of us.

"Look, if I hadn't thrown it at you she would never have reacted that way."

"Maybe, but that isn't permanent. That wouldn't make any sense. How can you have a power based solely on necessity? Its impractical."

"This isn't a science, Pete. There are no rules here. You'd understand that if—"

"If what? I was super-powered? Excuse me for being normal."

We weren't getting anywhere this way, bickering about the origins of her power. The problem was, I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't back down.

"You said yourself that it starts out that way. How are we going to learn to help her if its all about life or death? Just continually throw me in front of a bus and see what happens?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't object to that."

Suddenly she jumped off her seat on the wooden fence. "SHUT UP!" She shouted so loud, I almost jumped out of my skin. I couldn't even speak.

Apparently Clark was having the same problem as he open his mouth to say something.

There was only silence.

"Did I just—?" She asked herself aloud. "Did I—?" Neither of us answered because we couldn't.

Very quietly she whispered something I couldn't hear.

Clark coughed repeatedly "How did you do that?" He rubbed at his throat puzzled.

"I dunno." She was as surprised as any of us. "All I did was say it."

I clapped my hands together and pointed at myself to grab her attention. "Oh right. Sorry Pete."

She stalled for a moment to get her bearings, then merely commanded me. "Speak."

"Ha! I told you it had nothing to do with necessity." My voice was raw, but I ignored it, feeling like I was close to the answer.

"That was her mind control power which has its own set of activations. Obviously she already has a handle on it, because it's not a complex ability. At least not like telekinesis."

"How do we know that?"

"She can tell us to do whatever she wants, it doesn't have anything to do with stress or necessity. Unlike the other power which is dependent on it."

"And you base that on what? One trial run?"

"Guys, would you stop it already? If you keep this up I'm going to have to strip your speaking privileges for the remainder of the day." She became silent. "How crazy is it that I can do that?" She walked away back to the house and we followed after her.

"It is pretty awesome." He flashed her a big grin.

Realization hitting me, I came to a halt. "Wait…all you did was say it?"

He rolled his eyes at me and continued on. "Oh Jeez Pete, would you let it go?"

"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you." Clark was seriously starting to get on my nerves.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Except you just asked us to stop and we weren't forced into dysfunction again."

"Maybe its because she yelled it."

"No." _'you Idiot'_. I struggled to control my volume. "She whispered it to you and it still worked."

"Right, it looks like I have to speak in imperatives. Like _'Go'_, _'Stop'_ or in this instance, _'Shut up'_."

"So if you told me to go to hell, would I start digging into the earth?" He appended, jokingly.

"I don't think its that simple. I think it has to be a real order. Something you really will to happen."

"I haven't been consciously accessing it all the time either, which is probably why it hasn't happened before." A sly smirk formed on her face.

"Pete, run to that fence and back." I shot her an odd expression, but stuck to my spot.

"Run to the fence." Her tone sounded the same. It was no more or less fierce, yet it simply resonated in me. I was compelled to move, in way that made it difficult to discern my own intended actions and her induced ones.

At the railing, only a few yards away I remained, reporting the new development. "The spell ends once you complete the task. So that's good."

"Depends what the task is." Clark and Chloe walked back now closer together, arms interlocked.

She called over her shoulder to me. "Come on back!"

I hurried over, of my own volition…I think.

_**PT. 2**_

Clark stretched his legs out under the table. "What I really don't understand is how she got two gifts." It was weird, but Clark and I hadn't had a moment to talk alone all day. Chloe was up front ordering some cappuccino concoction, out of earshot. There were a considerable number of people waiting before her, giving us the perfect opportunity to talk. I never could explain why but Thursday nights at the Talon were always jam-packed.

"Its probably two different mutations. The girl's been exposed to more meteor than Crater Lake." I drank a bit out of my water bottle, which I brought along from the house. I was trying to be economical and health conscious or I'd be facing my freshman ten all over again.

"Two infections. That might explain why they're developing independently." He paused to acknowledge Chloe's approach. "Moira was holding her back so long, we have no way of knowing when she got them."

"Could this be anymore hard?"

"Or more terrifying." He added just as she walked up to us, placing her coffee down and eyeing us both questioningly.

Immediately aware of what the subject was, she popped in, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table next to Clark. "Personally, I find this all slightly poetic. The curator of the Wall of Weird is herself belonging to it." She offered a smile to lighten the glum mood. Clark and I gave her frustrated looks; we hated when she acted like this was nothing. It wasn't funny. Not at all. "What? Did I mistakenly sit down next to the black hole of humor or something?"

"No, nothing." She read us both in an instant.

"Guys." She sighed. "I know it bothers you when I joke about these things, but what else do you expect me to do?" Neither of us could meet her eyes. Two cowardly men we are. "Sit around all day and feel sorry about myself? I've never acted like the victim before, I'm certainly not going to start now."

She cleared her throat, marking the shift of direction. "So what're we doing tomorrow?"

"We were thinking that since we only have to focus on the…" I took in the room, watching to see if anyone was listening. "Is this the best place to be having this conversation?"

"This is Smallville Pete, who isn't talking about meteor-powers these days?"

"Okay…" I continued to be dubious, but the super-friends seemed to believe it was all right. "You know how to access the mind…thing so we're going to move on to the other…thing."

Clark chuckled. "Eloquently put." Then a skinny brunette unexpectedly barged up to us, pretty with long brown hair and blonde highlights tied up in a straight ponytail. Coffee tray in one hand and the other on her hip, I could sense already that she was not having a good day or possibly even a good year.

"You, call your mom." She pointed directly at Clark. "She's been wondering where you are." That was odd, considering that Smallville girls were never raised to be that direct and brazen. This was a leap farther than Chloe, who only really acted that way when she had her nose to the ground, following the path of a story. I knew that Mrs. Kent still owned the place, but I found it strange that she'd enlist her workers to pass on her messages, especially the really disgruntled ones.

"Lois!" Chloe hopped up and hugged her. Lois the partying cousin from Metropolis, right.

"Hey cuz." She patted her back and released her smaller cousin. "You didn't tell me you were in town." There was a genuine tone in her words separate from the feeling she presented to others.

"I'm not. Not for long anyway." She ran a hand through her own hair. "I'm heading back soon." Lie. Which was wise, we didn't want to invite any unwanted questions. From what I've heard about Lois, she was tenacious in the uncomfortable way. Not to mention incapable of holding a job. Apparently, she was fired for lack of delivery and story theft; crimes even the _Inquisitor_ looked down upon.

Noticing me finally, she nodded in my direction. "Who's your little friend?" Little? I'm 5' 10! Out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw Clark smile.

Either way, I rose from my seat and outstretched my hand to her because it was the right thing to do. Not punch her in the face. That would be the very _very_ wrong thing. "Pete Ross. Nice to meet you."

"Too bad you have no babies to kiss." Clark jabbed, but all of us refused to recognize him.

Shaking my hand strongly in return, she introduced herself. "Lois Lane. And back at cha." I pulled my hand back and positioned myself by Chloe's side.

"You know Pete, he went to high school with me." Chloe continued, in hopes of igniting her taller counterpart's memory.

"Is he the doofy kid who kissed you in the elevator?" Silence.

"_Lois_!" I would have hung my head if I had any motor function at the moment. Wait… nope, nothing.

"What? I always thought that story was funny."

"A laugh riot." I half-smiled, hard a feat as it was. _'It is WRONG to hit girls_._ You can not hit a girl.'_

I lifted my coat that had been lying on the seat and folded it over my forearm. "Like I said, it was nice meeting you Lois." I walked around the two girls, Chloe watching me with concern. "I'll see you two back at the farm."

Each step was as painful as the next, reminding me that I was salvaging what modicum of dignity I had left.

Pushing the door open with one hand I caught Chloe's voice before it closed. "What the hell is your problem, Lois? Come on Clark, we're leaving."

I wasn't even half way down the street when they caught up with me.

Chloe's eyes shone with sympathy and the slightest ounce of fear. The same expression I saw the next time I ran into her after that _incident_ "I'm so sorry, Pete. She's really not that bad all the time."

"Yes she is." Grinning to cheer me up, he patted me on the back. "It doesn't get better in time either."

Instead of defending her cousin, Chloe remained silent, which I greatly appreciated. I loved that she was loyal to me that way. They both were.

"I hope you left her a lousy tip." I was joking of course, since we never tipped well in all our years at the Talon. We were kids on short allowances. Now we were college kids on even shorter self-budgeted ones.

"20." Clark answered nonchalantly.

"What?" Why in the world would _Clark_ tip her?

We all stopped to hear his explanation. "It's towards the charity closest to my heart." Chloe and I both bewildered, waited for the punch line hidden in that.

"The Get Lois Out of Kansas Fund." She quirked her brow at me. Crash and Burn, Clark…Crash and Burn.

She started down the road first, crossing the street to where the truck was parked. "I think you were definitely funnier when you were a zombie." We laughed heartily together, at his expense.

"Clark, funny? Can you imagine that?" Chloe moved next to me after I caught up, running her arm around my waist.

"Never in a million years." She rested her head against my shoulder. I was so wrapped up in what was going on between us I didn't even realize that Clark had disappeared.

Chloe was no doubt the first to notice. "Clark?" We both turned, breaking away from one another. We were ready and alert for anything that may happen.

Except…Clark jumped out behind a car, scaring us. He made for Chlo, lifting her with his shoulders, so that she hung there, struggling against him. Her legs out front and her head hoisted up behind him. Deep inside me, a bit of anger stirred, because I knew his stunt was not as innocent as it looked. He had physically ripped her away from me.

"Put me down!" She screamed and resisted all the way to the Kent truck, creating a scene so ridiculous it won more than a few heads turning in our midst.

I fell behind, doing my best to separate myself from their association. Gaze focused upwards, I spoke directly to the heavens.

I wanted to say something comedic like, _'Why Me?'_ or_ 'Way to go'_. The words didn't form, because though Chloe and Clark were quirky and downright extraterrestrial at times they were still my friends. We have issues that went deep into our past engraved into everything we've become. Even so they would do anything for me, like I was doing for them now.

Maybe I didn't know what else to say…but it was simple. And sometimes, simple worked just fine.

"Thanks."

* * *

**Part 1- She _  
FINIS_**_   
_


	11. Faithless Insomniac

**Title: Is  
Author: GEFM  
Rating: T  
Genre: General and Romance  
Disclaimer: I own nothing and have no friends. **

** Chapter 11**

'_Is this my room?'_ Nope. Coming out of my haze, I tossed in my sleep until my eye caught the digital clock on Clark's desk. **4:17.**

Call me an insomniac and honestly lately you'd be correct.

I'm a liar too.

Maybe not, I've always been gray on the issue of where lying and withholding the truth begins. Chloe would tell you its all the same thing, but I'm not so sure. From what I see of politicians on television, my icons and one day predecessors, I'd have to live that lie sometimes for "the greater good". The great election outcomes might not have happened if everyone's dirty laundry were hung out to dry. At least not the way they should. The American people say they want honest candidates, but you're never going to see them telling you their life stories to all the world, indiscretions included.

Anyway, I'm dodging the gun here. I haven't been completely open about everything that's been bothering me.

Ever since the encounter with Chloe's loud mouth relative Lois, I haven't been able to stop thinking about that day. I had a lot of my own stuff going on at the time because my mother and father were comfortably at odds with one another. I had to play monkey, stuck in the middle.

What I remember was a truth serum doused Chloe, who ended up becoming the ultimate human lie detector. She could extract the truth from anyone –minus the mysterious Clark Kent— and she hadn't handled it well at all. In fact she'd become enamored with herself and her new found ability. Abusing it to all extents, she ended up falling deep in the pit with Lionel Luthor. He had later attempted to kill her later that summer in revenge for the secrets he had divulged to her on that day.

All in all, it hadn't been the best of experiences. She was remorseful especially to me after that and catered her ferocity a bit.

It still nagged at me in the back of my mind. Because she had experienced power before and every time she had failed to fight it, in fact she had "embraced it" like Clark had once bitterly said.

I'm not of the school of the half-fulls or the half-emptys. That's a generally narrow minded way of categorizing people, not to mention a biased one. When's the last time you heard someone tell you it was great to be a pessimist?

No, I'm a realist. I live here in the world where things aren't black and white. And yeah I'm challenged everyday for it with mind bullets and the man of steel as my best friends but that doesn't equate into my real philosophies.

To be unforgivably frank, I don't think Chloe will be able to beat this. Especially after I saw what she could do today.

I know that makes me sound terrible and hypocritical, since I was the one to criticize Clark for the same lack of faith.

Like I said, I haven't been very up front about certain things, this being one of them.

There were times I pushed her because I too believed she could do it. Which is why I kept with the routines, so she would have a chance. If anyone could overcome something this big, it would be her. At the end of the day though, I see this maniacal sparkle in her eye grow bigger and it shakes me right to the core.

She can't be blamed really, because I don't think any human can fight the sensation that comes from having that sort of power. I love her and that was why I came back. To try, to force Clark to open his eyes before it's too late.

I don't think either of us could stand it if we merely sat back and watched her deteriorate without having lifted a finger. I don't think Clark could ever continue to do what he does knowing he hadn't told her.

If he didn't get the chance to take her hand and tell her he loves her, I don't think he could live that way.

Hard as it was for me to say, jealousy and life long rivalries aside, I sensed Clark's destiny the same way Chloe did. She called me once she found out I too was apart of _"the secret club"_ and we sat up all night talking about what he might do one day, who he might become.

If he didn't get her he would never be able to move on. Then where would the world be?

I loved Chloe Sullivan and she loved my best friend, Clark Kent. But more than anything she loved this world.

She wasn't a tree hugger or anything like that, but she was a protector at heart. Her search for the truth was no different than a lawyer's search for justice or a fireman's search for life.

She was selfless and she would never ever allow the world to head toward its ruin if she could help it. I know she would never want to be the cause of it either.

Destiny has always scared me, but I also don't like doubting it. I didn't like thinking about what Chloe's destiny might be, but maybe this is it. Maybe it is inescapable, inevitable for her to be consumed by amorality.

Chloe, the woman who holds the most integrity and morals than anyone else I know, will find her future being a criminal and slave to her own subconscious.

There is still something ineffably unfitting about that, but who am I to say what should and shouldn't be? This may just be apart of some bigger plan I don't see yet, some training for Clark and I.

Maybe she has to die for Clark to embark on the next journey in his life.

Even that seemed unreal, because I always pictured Chloe in our future, not because it was the right thing. It was inherent that she'd be there. She was born to be there.

None of that was up to me, regardless of its unfairness. Life is unfair. I know, I wrote the book.

But if I did my small part in the large production, Clark could go on righting the world's wrongs the way she always wanted to. If she dies, when she dies Clark will be able to take her with him.

He would go on saving people and she would be right there beside him in the place she always wanted to be…

His heart.


	12. A Paradox Wrapped in a Paradox

**Chapter 12 **

_**PT.1**_

Clark and I hadn't been out for long, leaving Chloe to finish up her work for school back inside the house. We made our way into town and picked up some groceries. Entertaining this many guests all at once for the first time in months meant it was restock time for the Kents. We bought all the necessities: chips, soda, and ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

I could remember when we would always do junk food runs back in high school. Well Clark was the one who used to do the running but, whatever. Anyway, we would always plan a movie night at least every two weeks we'd go to one of our houses and watch the host's selection of movie. Because of Chloe I've seen almost every journalism-related movie to be made. All the King's Men has been on the play bill at least 4 times. Before then we'd always get food to accompany the experience.

I snatched a bag of "Three Musketeers" off the counter and threw it to Clark who was in the process of checking our stuff at the counter. He smiled and placed it on the table without a second question. It was funny, none of us really liked them, but it was a requisite part of every hang out night. At least, that's what Chloe had always said. It held some sort of symbolic value for her. As usual, Clark and I acquiesced.

When we made our way back to the house, I was the first to come up the front steps and I saw something that almost took my breath away. Through the window on the porch that peered through the living room, I saw the couch suspended along with several other things. Papers swirled around the room like a storm was brewing inside.

I called Clark over whose eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight.

"Chloe." He ran to the door and hurriedly went in. I followed and ran directly into him, surprised that he'd stopped so suddenly.

Everything was shaking, holding on dearly to remain idle. Her powers were showing itself in full force now. But it was too early, we hadn't prepared enough yet. The freight train had hit her anyway, even when we knew it might.

The floor shook defiantly, stressing against both her energy and the concrete bedding, refusing to come lose. Every other piece of furniture, glass, and implement stood suspended in the air. It was a grand spectacle, a subconscious display of ability that I had not even my wildest dreams believed to be possible.

So much chaos around her and yet she sat peacefully, head bowed at its epicenter, the eye of the storm.

Without thinking I sprinted for her, in hopes that I could wake her and some how break the spell. Calling her name did little to stir her and my approach compromised my previous safety. As easily as everything else I rose from my place upwards.

Clark, who had been diligently watching and calculating his plan of action during my foolhardy act, sped toward me, grabbing my pant leg and pulling me back down. Though I felt nearly no pressure exerted on me, I recognized the contortions in his face. His unparalleled strength was being tested by this task and that frightened me more than any experience these past weeks. I could not imagine where we'd be if she was ever brought to her full potential.

"Grab hold of me." He commanded, in that booming voice of his. Now standing side by side, I did as I was told, gripping onto his blue jacket with all my might. He placed an arm braced on my shoulder to keep me from floating again.

After he brought me to the hallway again slowly—because of the pull she had on us— and told me to leave, he returned to the field again. I leaned against the wall, watching the scene from a distance.

With each step he progressed I noticed it took him longer and longer until he was barely moving at all, digging his feet into the floor to stay erect. The wood beneath him creaked and then caved inwards, causing a trail of slight footstep impressions leading to Chloe.

At the very center, he came to a complete stop, scrutinizing the situation. His right arm came up cautiously and reached to touch some invisible substance before him. A shimmer erupted from that place and followed the path of a round protective covering around her. A shield.

His hand extended towards it again this time palm out to caress the suspicious object's surface. After giving the whole thing yet another cursory look through, his stance tensed as he prepared himself for something. What exactly, I couldn't tell.

The wind whipped around him more forcefully now as his knees bent. Pushing onward, his body shook and his teeth ground together, but he had advanced marginally. While it appeared as if she were doing nothing, I noticed everything amplify, with Chloe reacting for the first time throughout the entire exchange. He fought to maintain his standing, grunting and swearing in frustration.

There was a sudden blast when her head snapped back, craning back on the chair. The same moment he took a step forward and was thrown off balance. To prevent falling behind anymore, he desperately slammed both of his feet in the floor, crashing straight through. His feet still dragged the further he got and two massive furrows appeared in the floor where he was. Now after stabilizing himself once more, he used both hands and thrust with a new determination and might. It was comforting to know that Clark still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

When it looked like he wasn't going anywhere, he let go and took a step back away from it. His gaze lowered to the very middle of the construction, his focus alerted me and I immediately knew what he was going to do.

"Stop!" I jumped out from behind my hiding place and waved my hands in warning. Clark acknowledged me for the first time.

"Pete, what're you doing? I thought I told you to get out of here." He motioned to the doorway.

"Don't use your heat vision. You might hit her." He shot me a quizzical look, surprised that I knew.

"I know what I'm doing. It's very accurate."

"Maybe, but it'll go through the force field and you don't what that might do. Even if you miss her—"

"Enough." His voice surprised me. He was almost a different person, assertive, demanding, heroic.

But this wasn't the time for rash heroics. "We're trying to not push her over the edge, Clark. Breaking the shield may do just that."

Suddenly, my meddling made him very angry. "Its too late! She's already gone."

Without any delay, he moved closer and instead of blasting the thing with his heat ray like he had planned, he cocked his arm up behind him.

He took a swing.

_**PT. 2**_

His fist had gone straight through the obstruction, which subsequently caved in on itself. The jolt that was sent shook the entire foundation and sent me flying backwards. I was stopped only by the impact of my body on the wall behind me. I fell unconscious.

When I awoke on the couch, Clark was seated on the coffee table across from me with his elbows rested on his thighs, hunched over resembling prayer. Without the slightest change in expression, he nodded at me in recognition. Then resumed his far away stare.

I wondered if something terrible had happened to her. If she'd gone crazy, ran away, went into a coma, or died. Unable to wait for the answer, I quickly sat up and surveyed the room in hopes of seeing her by the kitchen making a coffee, or at the table reading the Planet. She wasn't.

The wreckage was the second thing to come to my attention. The floor, the tables, the chairs all of it must've fallen once Clark broke the field. Nothing was broken but there was visible damage on everything.

"Where is she, Clark?"

"Upstairs." He rose his head and looked at the ceiling. His eyes squinted and I knew he was watching her.

"And how is she?" The throbbing in my head returned and I was reminded of how lucky I had been just to walk away with a headache.

"She's awake." He sighed and stood up. "She locked herself in my room and won't come out."

He helped me up. "You want a coffee or something? All the ice cream melted though."

"Uh…yeah, that'd be great." I try to smile, but it tenses my muscles and hurts my head. We walk over to the kitchen which looks like a war must've been started and then cleaned up in a hurry. I imagine Clark tidied up while he waited.

After I took a sip of some hot chocolate concoction, the one question I was too afraid to ask before began nagging at me. Was Chloe still _Chloe_? "Is she…is she—?"

"No. So far, she's fine." _So far?_ It looks like we've all been shaken up tonight.

But like I said before, Chloe cannot doubt herself. That's where it starts. That's where the fight ends before it even begins. I finished off my drink and made it up the stairs. Maybe she was waiting for me to save her.

I paused right before I knocked. I've done this so many times in the past. I'd come over and Mr. Sullivan would wordlessly point to the staircase that led to her room. I'd trudge on up there, all the while preparing what it was I'd say. How I would somehow reconcile whatever it was that Clark had done this time to upset her so.

Then I'd bring her back down, out of her cocoon, and set her free again. This time though, I don't think its going to get better. It may get easier to ignore, but it'll never be gone. No matter what, the fear that's keeping her locked away now will never let go.

No matter what happens, she'll have to live with it everyday.

And no matter what, I'd open that door regardless of what might face me on the other side.

_**PT. 3**_

I sat on the bed beside her and neither of us spoke, each waiting for the other to start. The silence was comforting and helped me forget what I was here for.

"I wonder how long we'd have gone before we actually called it quits. The silence thing I mean." She was staring at the floor and picking absently at her jeans.

"Not too long. I knew you'd crack under five minutes. That'll be the day we worry. When Chloe Sullivan stops speaking." I smile slightly to warm her up.

I quickly realized how cold she really was. It would take more than just some humor to bring her back this time.

She crashes into me, hugging me sideways. "Oh Pete." Rubbing her back to console her, I continue to not say a thing.

"Do you remember any of it?"

She let out a breath and whipped her face. "Yeah. It was sort of an out of body experience. I had zero control over what I was doing and no idea what I did to make all of that happen."

I wanted to ask what had happened before that but I didn't want to pry. If I push her she won't say a thing. That's what she always did anyway.

Somehow though, she read my mind and answered. "I was doing some research on a story for the Planet when I took a little break to check my emails. You know me, I hate to be cut off from civilization for long and I knew I must've missed a lot while I was gone. And there was one email that was post dated, which doesn't happen unless the postmaster resends it after its been misdirected."

"What did it say?"

She reached behind her and grabbed her laptop off the nightstand. "See for yourself."

The laptop was shoved into my hands as I read the screen to myself.

**'_From:   
To: Mom sent you an email?"_**

"She knew she was dying. It doesn't surprise me."

I read on, marveling in each detail of how they'd gone to see her grandparents up in Granville, just she and Chloe when the meteors hit. After that, Moira had learned of her ability and immediately knew that Chloe too must've had something similar happen to her because she had been closer to the blast. In order to protect Chloe, Moira submitted herself voluntarily to a local psyche ward and worked to suppress Chloe's powers as soon as she got in distance of her.

___I wanted to tell you, I wanted you to know that I never abandoned you. Not for the reasons you thought anyway. I know what I did hurt you, but I didn't know how else I could help you. I loved you so much; I couldn't bear to let you live with that burden. With all the pain you had to go through, I knew you deserved a normal life. After all the mistakes I made, that was the very least I could do for you._

___I wish I could have lived longer, to see you grow up into the woman I always knew you'd be. You must think that you have no chance, that your powers will consume you, but I know you better. It won't break you._

___While I was manipulating your gifts, I noticed the second power immerge once you and your father moved to Smallville. At first I wasn't able to get a hold of it, because it didn't exist in your mind. With every other enhanced human I have confronted they have always had an on-off switch somewhere in their subconscious. Then it occurred to me. This power was not showing itself because it wasn't separate. Somehow, your former ability governed the latter. _

___That means its only one power, Chloe. Knowing that should help you control it, which I'm sure you are already well on your way of doing. You'll probably never forgive me for attacking Lex Luthor and I know it scared you to see me so murderous and criminal. This must all be very hard to face but if I remember anything about you its this. You were far stronger than I ever was. You never gave up, not on yourself or on anyone else. You're a fighter Chloe. Fight for you dreams._

___I have to go now, because you know how these things happen. I'll never stop being sorry for all of this and I hope one day that you can come to terms with it. If you ever find yourself feeling nothing but the anger, remember what I gave for you to have more._

___I love you Chloe. You will always be the best thing I have ever done._

"Jesus, this right before—" I glanced at her and noticed the tears reformed there. She had been re-reading over my shoulder. "I'm so sorry we weren't around." I closed her laptop.

"I don't think it would have mattered." Chloe left my side and walked out of the room.

"Wait." I put the computer on the bed and went after her, in time to grab her hand before she went down stairs. "That's it? You're fine now?" In the past Chloe refused to leave her room until everything was resolved. We'd barely scratched the surface so far.

"No, but what's the point?" She ripped her arm away and descended down the steps. "My mother died. She was murdered just when I thought I could have her back again." I pursued her all the way as she grabbed her coat. "Now I have to wait around until the exact same thing happens to me."

Chloe turned on her heel and glared at me. "So no, Pete. I'm not fine. I'm never going to be fine."

She slammed the door and left without another word.


	13. Demons I Hold In A Frisbee

**Chapter 13**

Saturday morning after yet another completely restless night, I took the gang out back into the field again. Today was a new day and I hoped that the demons haunting me at night would disappear once again so we could continue on with the practices.

She hadn't come home until a few hours later that day. She cried and told us about how angry she'd been. How she started to throw things and found that she could control them. Everything got out of hand when she became too ambitious and lost her perspective. She lost her restraint in her rage.

Though we were all slightly more terrified this time around, Mrs. Sullivan's letter helped a great deal. Realizing that Chloe had in fact contracted the first infection while on a family trip with her mother and the almost identical power gave us great insight into her own skill. Secondly, knowing that the mind control was the key to the latter ability was not only a paradox solved, but also an amazing start off point.

Three days ago, we had determined how to access the telekinesis. When Chloe had been in every situation where the ability surfaced she had no recollection of the command. It became clear then that it was external. It was the only thing that was responsible for her forgetfulness. When Chloe had stopped the hay bale from crashing into me, she hadn't told it to stop she had told herself to stop it. Since the object is inanimate and nonliving it can't take her order, which was why she had failed all the attempts before that.

The day before yesterday, she moved a spoon and coaxed it to fly. She knew how to do it and in the meanwhile was completely sane. For the first time, optimism started taking to me. Could we actually defeat destiny?

"I know you guys are all excited about this, but Frisbees…really?" Her hands on her hips, defiantly.

"Today's lesson is going to be direction." I picked up a painfully vibrant pink disc off the grass. "They're light and aerodynamic which are two basic factors we don't need messing you up right now." I grabbed her hand and lead her to where I had set up a stack of Frisbees for her. A distance away down the field Clark was stationary, awaiting further instruction.

"You're too far away, Clark!" She yelled for him and he complied milliseconds later appearing again only 5 feet away.

"Alright, take this." I handed her the plastic disc. "Start when you're ready."

She outstretched her hand, palm upwards. Eyeing it intensely, she remained unmoving. "Rise" she said to the object.

It didn't budge.

"It's you, remember? You have to order yourself."

"Right." Without turning away or remarkably even batting an eye, she tried once more.

Slowly it lifted up, hovering and then dropping a little, repeatedly in that motion. "Control it Chloe. Keep it steady."

"I'm trying." Her gaze grew exponentially more concentrated. I could almost bet she was sleeping with her eyes open.

It held in place inches above her hand and, without waiting for more directions, went in a straight line beaming for Clark.

Instead of watching the miracle she performed I kept my eyes focused on her, on her movements to see if there was anything external I could see to clue me in on what was happening inside her mind.

Her eyes appeared glazed over and I wondered if she was in another mindset or if she was still coherent. Was it possible to carry on normally and also use her ability?

I motioned for Clark to back up more until he was 20 or so feet away.

I positioned myself by her side so I could speak to her more easily. If this was all meditation she was going to have to handle stress and oncoming stimuli.

"Chloe, is this hard? Are you tired?" I spoke delicately into her ear.

She didn't say anything at first until I noticed the frost in her eyes diminish and the Frisbee tremble as well. "Yes and hell yes." Her voice was rough and broken as if she were bearing a heavy load on her back.

Pushing her extended arm down with my own, I watched as the disc began to wonder without her hand to guide it.

"Don't you wish you could just give up?" I was testing her to see how much true focus she had.

"I wish you'd stop shooting your mouth off so I could pay attention." It was now moving at random with no real direction or restraint.

For some reason I found myself getting annoyed with her. After all, I was only trying to help her. "What're you doing? You're letting it go." She wasn't trying hard enough and at this rate she'd be in that hospital bed in no time.

The object fell again, almost to the ground 'til it halted a few feet from it and then rose again only to move sideways away from us.

"Concentrate!" I kept picturing that moment, Clark and I looking on from behind a solid glass and Chloe dying there, slipping away from us. So she had to try harder than this. She couldn't die! What would happen if she did?

"I can't!"

"You're not focusing enough!"

"I can't!"

It hit the ground finally and Chloe turned to me with tears in her exhausted eyes. I felt like I was punched in the gut with remorse. I had gotten too carried away.

Clark zoomed over, which was just what I needed. "Pete, leave her alone." He put a protective arm around her waist and they walked off together, leaving me alone.

Maybe I should give up now, pack up my things and head to Wichita before I make things any worse. I don't want her to wind up hating me for it and right now that seemed like the path I was sprinting down. Obviously I can't cope with the lack of sleep and stress that face me here.

If this is destiny, then these things will work themselves out, right?

I don't need to be here to oversee her impending death or her triumph whichever it may be.

I turned my back on the farm and marched on in the opposite direction.

They don't need me.

They've never needed me.


	14. Locker No 2101

**Chapter 14**

I'm 19 years old, in an old beat up bar, depressed without the benefit of any alcohol. Serious low point for Pete Ross.

Grabbing my things and leaving a small discrete tip for my glass of coke, I headed out the metal doors that led to a main road. From there I made my trek back to civilization.

I don't really know how I ended up here, Smallville High, without recognizing where I was. By the front door of the school, I examined the building, which must have undergone a significant amount of remodeling since my last visit. From what I understood, the high school students were still attending alongside the middle school students because of the huge damages caused by the last meteor shower of two years ago.

The school was open now in some areas, but not in most so I was careful with each of my steps into the building. Ducking under tarp and such that obstructed the doorway, I was surprised by its lack of change internally. I was a student all over again and this was my playground.

A distinct film of dust carpeted the floor and stuck to my Air Jordan's but I didn't mind. I came up to lockers 2100 through 2108 and noticed without hesitation my locker. 2102 next to Chloe's 2101 and Clark's 2100. "The Three Musketeers." My one was clearly marked with the words "THE BOSS" directly under the number tag line. Vandalizing school property used to be so cool back then.

A little ways down from our lockers was the trophy case. After spotting the engraved Ross accolades first, I noticed Clark's MVP award from the 2005 State Championship. All those years I thought he was scared, in a way he was…of hurting others.

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what that must be like, to be that powerful and to be conscious everyday of holding yourself back. I know I wouldn't be able to take that.

But would Chloe?

I was so sure it was no. I was sure it was a universal no. Yet she was the one person I have always looked to for strength. Even she can not fight it?

Maybe that's why I haven't been able to leave. How can I?

There's still so much hope left in her eyes how can I turn my back on that like a coward?

A leader wouldn't do that. He would weather the storm. When he knows it looks bad he'll stand by it and see it through.

So who am I? Am I a coward?

I ran out of the school, back to the farm.

Destiny doesn't name people to greatness, nor does it banish them from it.

Greatness is won by those who chase it.

I was going to put up the fight of my life.

Destiny be damned.


	15. Return of a Mother

**Chapter 15**

_**PT. 1**_

I entered through the front door slowly, taking care to make as little noise as possible. Trying that was stupid, since Clark had bionic ears that could hear you coming from a mile away.

I must've lucked out because I made it to the living room without being noticed. Seriously, I need to quit politics and join the CIA. Behind my shoulder I heard the softest whimper, I whipped my head back to find the source of the sound. There, Chloe was in the dining room, head rested in her hands sobbing ever so slightly.

Her cell phone sat on the table next to her elbow and it gave me an idea.

It began to buzz and dance across the table, as some ridiculous country song came on that she no doubt chose to mock my taste in music. She whipped her face and scrutinized the cover of her cell, then hurriedly picked up the phone.

Chloe pushed it up to her ear. "Pete?" She sounded so desperate; it made my heart ache. I'm such a magnificent jerk.

"Did you really think—" Her eyes moved to me, shock settling there. "I'd leave you—" She ran to me. "—alone with Clark?" Colliding into my arms. God, I could hold her forever. Her barely blonde hair caressed my face and enveloped me with a vanilla fragrance. It was the same shampoo she'd used for years almost religiously. Through every wacky hair cut you could hug her and consistently know this would be there. It was like coming home for the first time in years. I missed it back in Metropolis with the photo-nerd spying over my back, but now I could indulge.

"Are you back for good?" She pulled away to dig for answers. The amount of Pulitzers…really. "No more out of the blue escape routines?"

I smiled at her and brushed a hand through her beautiful glory of hair. Much like the fading of time so did its once platinum color. It no longer needed to be cut to the side to look sporty or drawn up to give that bouncy feel. It had the character in each wave, in each imperfection it held.

"Good." She punched my arm hard.

"Ow! What the—?" I winced and clutched my injured bicep.

"Don't you ever scream at me that way again, or you'll get a lot worse than a fist." The funniest thing about Chloe or possibly the scariest is that even if she's small and pretty much incapable of taking anyone in a real fight she was feisty as hell and if she threatened you, you'd better listen because she'll keep her promise. "Understand?" The only person more submissive to her than me was Clark.

"Loud in clear, Mom." I surveyed the room, listening for noise, or in this case, lack there of. "Where's Clark?"

"Martha—" Martha? She noticed my bemusement. "I mean, Mrs. Kent came back early, Clark's doing some overtime explaining. She caught us—"

"Tongue dancing?"

"What? No!" Okay, I totally misread her words. "I was twirling my fork in the air, hands free when she walked in."

"What is it with you and kitchen cutlery lately?"

"Now who's missing the point?" Her accusation didn't bother me. " You'd think after raising ET she'd be a little less surprised."

"Not really. It's like finding out your daughter's been hiding this huge life-altering secret from you." I went to the refrigerator hoping that maybe Mrs. Kent might have left some food behind to eat. Negative.

Chloe's eyebrows drew up in thought, contemplating my asseveration about her adoptive mother, Mrs. Kent. Moira Sullivan, Chloe's biological mother, had suffered ceaselessly for years through her psychotic break, constant meteor-induced comas, and the direct focus of protecting her only daughter. In the end, it would lead to her tragic death.

The mom area had always been a tender spot for Chloe and it couldn't have gotten any easier after she had realized that she too had a future, a destiny engraved like her sickly mother's.

And though it was sad to say, Martha Kent had been more of a maternal guide to Chloe than her own kin ever were. It was the only part of Clark she envied so reverently. While many would praise his strength or undying fortitude, Chloe found solace in the one thing Clark had that she didn't. A fair and loving family, one that didn't share a blood relation or even the lineage of the same species.

Her father had been largely an absentee one not of his own fault but of a mixture of long hours at an unremarkable job and the stark need for independence Chloe exerted upon everyone. The girl never begged for a hand, she'd dust herself off and call it day. Except if you knew the real girl, saw the real vulnerability she carried with her everyday— the effusive quixotic behind the sharp intellectual –you'd know that one of her greatest fears is that one day, she would have scared off anyone who ever happened to offer the help. That she would in fact be alone.

"You remember when you found out about Clark." I set a glass and the milk jug on the table that I had retrieved from the fridge. "Times it by 2 and you get her reaction. It's not like anyone saw this coming with you."

"Because I'm so normal." She rolled her eyes as she took a seat on the stool beside me.

"Oh no. You are very very not normal." Encouragingly, I rubbed her upper arm. "A step up from quirky actually."

"And I'm damn proud of it." She sighed and bowed her head, apparently I'm not the only having trouble with all the stress.

Just then Mrs. Kent clamored into the kitchen, reviewing us both with worrisome eyes. Without even a second's hesitation she embraced Chloe in a sort of side ways manner because she had been sitting face forward.

_**PT. 2**_

"Are you mad?"

Chloe took a seat next to Martha on the couch, while Clark and I loitered on the opposite side of the living room. "Not at all. Surprised, yes but being the guard of that boy and his spaceship has softened me to these things." Mrs. Kent watched as Chloe drank a few more gulps of coffee. "I still remember when Jonathan and I thought all the stories were tall tales dreamed up by an over imaginative metropolitan girl. Sometimes it's still hard to believe."

"The truth often is." Chloe sent a sideways glance to Clark, who, ignorant as always to her frequent gestures, was looking out the living room window at the field.

"Clark told me what you guys were doing here." He caught my glare.

He whispered in response. "How else was I going to explain two huge holes in the floor?"

Somehow his mom had heard him. "It's not his fault Pete, you know he can't lie to me." Well, that was true. It still made this more complicated and after all the progress this was no time for complication. "I'm happy you're doing this." She placed a hand on Chloe's shoulder. "I really am proud of you. All of you."

"Things are going considerably well. I haven't had any urges to kill someone yet." She offered that morbid thought with a smile. I really hated when she did that.

"Oh Chloe, don't think like that. You're not going to hurt anybody." They stared at each other for a moment, exchanging looks I couldn't interpret.

"Boys, I'd really like you to leave us for a while. I think Chloe and I deserve a long talk."

Clark eyebrows shot up in that 'We need to run now' way. I stopped myself before I laughed because I didn't want to give Clark away. We walked past the girls, mother and daughter, with alacrity.

Without thinking, he bent down and kissed Chloe on the cheek. He paused on his way back, confused about what he'd done. I noticed the way Mrs. Kent eyed Clark, like she had suspected him of what I already knew he was guilty of. She may not have had the facts I did, but she knew her son and all of his misguided romance antics.

A mother's intuition. That was what we needed now. I never thought about it before. Mrs. Kent was the one to teach Clark, along her husband of course. Mrs. Kent was there for every training session and growth spurt young Clark had to survive. She was there for every platitude and moral conflict.

There was no question in my mind that she could do it again for Chloe.

_**  
**_


	16. Story Summary

**I apologize for not finishing this story or offering some sort of explanation sooner. Smallville has disappointed me completely and I cannot bring myself to continue with this. For those of you who supported me and reviewed I thank you. I post this so that you will at least have some understanding of what I meant to create. This is the story, summarized.  
**

**Enjoy!**

**Story Summary- She is 2101 **

**(1)** Pete has a dream that Chloe's powers drive her insane and kill her, causing him to return to Smallville. **(2)** Pete meets up with Chloe at the Planet and decides to spend the day with her. **(3)** While on a trip to the local park, the two of them discuss her relationship with Clark and how her newfound abilities have affected it. **(4)** Pete goes to see Clark at his barn to talk about why he has been avoiding Chloe and to convince him to go see her. **(5)** On their way to the Planet, Pete formulates a plan to use Clark's experience to train Chloe and they tell her about it. **(6)** After Pete convinces her to come back to the Kent's, he wakes up late at night and finds Clark and Chloe kissing downstairs. **(7)** This event causes all of them to act awkward, making the first day of training ridiculous and reveals how much the latter two like one another. **(8)** Later they try to figure out how to trigger Chloe's powers by throwing objects at her, but it only works when Pete is the one in danger of being hit. **(9)** Seeing her powers work scares Chloe, making her doubtful of the training and whether it would accelerate her amorality; Pete however, reassures her by showing her that her integrity is her number one asset. **(10)** The next day, Pete and Clark fight over the origins of Chloe's powers; In order to shut them up, she uses and learns how to utilize her mind control with ease; All three of them sit in the Talon to discuss the next step and, after a humiliating run in with the ever brazen Lois, have to regroup at the house.

**(11)** That same night, Pete is unable to sleep and we learn that he hasn't been for a while, staying up to think about Chloe's impending death and her inability to beat her disease. **(12)** After going out on a junk food run several days later, Clark and Pete return to the house to find Chloe unconscious, willing all the objects in the room to float; Clark approaches her, finding that a invisible shield is protecting her body, and rashly punches through it in an effort to save her, which causes a huge shock wave to be unleashed; Pete loses consciousness and awakes to learn that Chloe has locked herself upstairs in Clark's room; Pete finds out that Chloe had gotten upset after seeing an email from her mother that said that Chloe's mind power controlled her second power and that also bid her goodbye just before her death; Re-reading this makes Chloe upset and she leaves the house for a few hours to blow off some steam. **(13) **Excited that Chloe can now control her abilities with all this new information, the three of them resume training four days later, but when Chloe doesn't perform as well as a fearful Pete expects, he yells at her and decides to go home before everything gets worse. **(14)** Finding himself in a haggard bar downtown, Pete realizes that this is not the place for him, instead walking towards his high school to review memories. **(15)** Pete returns to the Kent farm, now resolved to defeat destiny along with Mrs. Kent who after seeing Chloe's talents volunteers to aide in the effort.

**(16)** Mrs. Kent's teachings help Chloe a great deal and give her a moral compass to guide her; [Description of note passing key. **(17)** Weeks after vigorous routines, Chloe is now able to maintain, conceal, and handle her powers to all extents. **(18)** Mrs. Kent gets invited to a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and takes the kids with her. **(19)** Now that they are finally together and everything is at peace, Clark must complete his year long training at the Fortress of Solitude; Meanwhile, an article Chloe writes for the DP sends Lex Luthor underground and in turn forces Chloe herself to go into hiding after she receives numerous threats from below; Lois Lane is kidnapped, which is widely televised, and is tortured until she tells her captors where her cousin is and Chloe is then subsequently taken. **(20)** Clark comes back from training to find that Chloe has been missing for two months and no one has any idea where she is; He tracks down Pete who has been working diligently on his own trying to locate her, but he has gotten nothing; Exasperated, Clark goes back to his loft to think and there he uncovers a note that reads, "Welcome to the war, Clark. I hope we didn't keep you waiting too long."; Clark takes the address attached and follows it to an old car junk yard just outside Metropolis; Chloe is waiting for him there along with Lex who has apparently been drugging her for sometime to keep her lucid but under his control; However, we learn that Chloe is not being manipulated anymore (she has gotten stronger an inverse side affect to the drugs), she was just with Lex to draw Clark to her; "I honestly can't understand why the others have gone after weak, harmless humans. What's the point of attacking them? Where's the challenge?" "And you see a challenge here?" "Of course! I'm here to measure my skill, my cap on my potential. Haven't you ever been the slightest bit curious, Clark[She begins to rise in the air In a battle against the strongest physical force and the most powerful mental being, who wins?"; Clark tries to punch through her force field again but her energy stops his hand and throws him backwards; Clark gets his ass kicked until he uses his heat vision as a last resort, which sufficiently stops her but also puts her into a coma.

**(21)** Clark and Pete go to visit Chloe in the hospital where she is dying slowly; Pete feels terrible because in the dream they had more time and he feels guilty about accelerating the process; Clark also is pressured with guilt for using his heat vision but Pete tells him it was the drugs Lex had her on for so long that rotted her body so quickly. **(22) **Pete confesses to Clark his real reason for returning to Smallville (his dream) and he tells Clark that when they had both come together like this less than an hour later Chloe went into cardiac arrest and died; Afraid of losing his chance, Clark leaves, making the decision to go see his biological father, Jor-el, for an answer; Jor-el tells Clark not to trifle with human lives, because many would be lost during his life time as they had always been and doing so was a dangerous endeavor; Clark retorts that he helped this same human being before, which leads Jor-el to reveal that Chloe was in fact "chosen" to be connected to Clark, to be a guide on his journey and it was why he had allowed the interference earlier; Clark argues that she still holds this importance and that if she died he would not be able to continue on his destiny; Though Jor-el is still skeptical, he acknowledges that there is one way to save her if she means to Kal-el what he claims she does. "However, this object is not here." "Then where is it?" "Many millennia ago, when our people first traveled to this Planet, several artifacts of great significance were left behind for human use." "I know Kryptonian alloy doesn't weather with time but given how long it's been it could be anywhere by now." "I'm sorry my son, but there is nothing else I can do. If it is written for her to perish than that is what will be."; Refusing to believe that, Clark takes this, what he believes is his last chance, "Alright then, describe it to me."; A smile plasters on his face when he realizes that the search won't be that difficult after all, because not only has he seen it before he has had it all along. **(23)** If Clark uses the Kawatchee tribe bracelet on Chloe—based on Jor-el's descriptions— it will erase all of her memory because as it turns out this is the only way to rid her mind of the corruption the mutations have caused; After Clark says his good-byes and slips a small paper in her hand, Chloe begs him never to tell anyone because it will compromise her integrity and seriousness as a journalist if anyone knew. **(24)** After Clark promises and saves Chloe he flies her down to Metropolis General and ensures that she get inside for care; When Chloe is taken in, one of the interns pulls the piece of paper out of her hand and she reacts by shouting and groping at it incoherently; Seeing this, one of the nurses confiscates the sheet and notices that it is some sort of code because the majority of the letters are normal but jumbled in with several backwards symbols, "2101?"; Though she is determined to figure it out she realizes that it must have been written for the unknown girl's use only; Another fellow nurse comes into the room and peaks over the former nurse's shoulder; "What're you doing, Elaine?" "What?" "You're reading that backwards." She grabs the paper from her nonchalantly and flips it over. "See?" She hands it back to Elaine who is awestruck by the words; "Helen, Oh my God. Do you see this?" Helen reads the words for the first time. "I guess she's no Jane Doe after all." Elaine stands up in a hurry, ripping the paper to shreds and tossing it away in the bin, "No, not at all. Not at all." The first thing she resolves to do is freshen up, its time to call the newspapers.

**YM**

**3MAn**

**2I**

**2101**

**3nA1**

**(25)** Many years in the future, Pete holds a press conference announcing himself the Vice President on Candidate Luthor's ticket; He sees a blonde haired girl that reminds him of Chloe and though her name isn't recognizable he listens to her question intently; He calls the conference to an end when a different reporter calls out to him; Her voice catches his attention and though his manager says that the session is over he is compelled to listen; She announces herself as "Lois Lane of the Daily Planet" and Pete tells us what happened to the real Lois who was beaten and tortured to death by his running mate; An awfully tall man stands next to her, wearing heavy black glasses; Pete smiles to himself, noticing the similar recognition and contempt on the man's face.

"It was destiny that I'd come back that day and destiny that she was standing here of all places today.

And seeing where destiny took all three of us: the hero, the reporter, and the politician…

I'm not so scared of it anymore."

**FINIS **


End file.
